Bumper Year

Glut at Gilbert Bayes Award 2019 Winners Exhibition, Royal Society of Sculptors, London

Thinking back over this year of highlights and achievements, I have a lot to be thankful for. 2019 has been a bumper year for me. Peppered with a whole range of community projects, workshops, new work, awards and exhibitions, it has been a turning point in my artistic career.

I was delighted to be invited to give a valedictory speech at my MFA graduation ceremony, Bath Spa Uni at the start of this year. Fuelled by the MFA, my work developed over the year. Ladders became a theme I explored - from an Outdoor Arts Development Course with Activate, B-Side & Bournemouth Arts by the Sea Festival, to my Cells Residency and Solo exhibition at Town Hall Arts, Trowbridge, which in turn led to B-Wing - a project I co-curated with Luminara Star at Shepton Mallet Prison, as part of Somerset Art Weeks Festival. Gaining an Arts Council England/National Lottery project grant amongst other funding awards for B-Wing enabled me to reach new heights in scale and ambition. As part of B-Wing, I worked with various community groups and schools. I was interviewed on ITV South West by Ben McGrail, and loved meeting John McCarthy, who opened our Special Events Day. I worked with some wonderful inspiring artists including Lou Baker, whose work resonates with my own.

Winning a Gilbert Bayes Award with the Royal Society of Sculptors, of which I am now a member, was a real highlight. Development sessions over the year with a talented cohort has concluded with an exhibition currently on at RSS, London, touring to Grizedale Sculpture in March 2020.

Other exhibitions included Incendiary and Drawing on Dorset (touring show), both of which have mileage for future shows in 2020. Over the summer I made a large site-specific outdoor piece Crown of Thorns, shown at the entrance to Bishops Palace, Wells, in Re-Formation curated by Heritage Courtyard Gallery.

Crown of Thorns, Re-Formation at Bishops Palace. Photo by Ann Cook

Some of my workshops and community projects brought about new collaborations and friendships. Working with students at Bruton School for Girls led to a room-sized installation. I recently gave a talk to Bath University architecture students and will be participating in their final review. In the New Year I’m running a short sculpture course starting 8 January for 5 weeks on Wednesdays 6-8pm at the Cheese & Grain, Frome (book via Frome Community Education).

A few commissions and sales have kept the wolf from the door. I made a Great Crested Newt for Carymoor Environmental Trust, a series of swans necks for a celebrity’s winter garden (based on a lake theme, the swans’ bodies will be bushes), and sold Butterfly on Spiky Pod via Art Parks.

Swan necks awaiting collection for their new home in a celeb’s garden

My new website here on Squarespace, created this year, gives my work a fresh face.

I owe thanks to so many for their support: Royal Society of Sculptors, Patricia Brien, Town Hall Arts, Somerset Art Works, Arts Council England, Somerset Skills and Learning, Somerset Community Foundation, Shepton Mallet Town Council, Heritage Courtyard Gallery, Shepton Mallet Prison/Jailhouse Tours, and Nick Weaver for his technical assistance. There are many more I could thank too…

Happy New Year! Here’s wishing you a positive start to 2020!

Winter News

Last month I plunged into completing a studio renovation project, started earlier this year. Consequently, I have space to breathe and work in my freshened up outbuilding/studio! My welding bay is now sited separately in a converted shed. Storage space is always an issue, but for now, all my large pieces that need weather protection are safely under cover.

I gave a couple of talks about my work - one to an audience of 3rd year architecture students at Bath University. It was an interesting exercise in re-evaluating my practice through a different lens.

I’m excited to have been selected for Art UK’s Masterpieces in Schools programme, 2020 delivery. I will be working with a South West school making sculpture based on one of my pieces on loan to the school for a day. It will be interesting to see which one they pick.

Forthcoming Exhibitions and Courses:

Two of my sculptures have been selected for the Royal Society of Sculptors Gilbert Bayes Award 2019 Winners Exhibition - Glut and Of Bones. The exhibition opens 16 December - 20 March, Mon-Fri, 11am-5pm, Dora House, RSS, 108 Old Brompton Rd, S.Kensington, London SW7 3RA. Private View 18 Dec, 6.30pm (RSVP exhibition@sculptors.org.uk). I’m in great company, the other Gilbert Bayes winners are all excellent and very diverse. I’ve really enjoyed my year getting to know them and attending some inspiring RSS development sessions. Our work will tour to Grizedale Sculpture, Cumbria, from March 2020.

I’m working on a new piece for FIFTY BEES 4: The Interconnectedness of All Things. My work will be associated with the Hoplitis Claviventris welted mason bee, one of 50 bees by 50 artists. They will accompany life-sized felted bees by artist/curator Lydia Needle. I’ve been researching the mason bee’s path of pollination. My piece will be an abstract sculptural installation, essentially reflecting connections of bee to pollen, using recycled materials including foodstuff. The exhibition runs 8 February - 14 March 2020, Black Swan Arts Gallery, 2 Bridge Street, Frome BA11 1BB

I’ll be taking part in Incendiary 2, Pound Arts, Corsham, 19 March - 18 April 2020, curated by Patricia Brien. More news to follow.

Sculpture Course

Happily, my first 5 week evening course making organic sculptures from recycled materials at Frome Community Education went well, so I am running another 5 week Sculpture Course on Wednesdays 6-8pm, from 8 January 2020.  If you’d like to book please visit: fromecommed.org.uk

For other workshops please see Forthcoming Workshops

I’ve been getting inspiration from various sources: I attended a bronze casting workshop at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, my first attempt at bronze casting. I visited Mary Sibande at Somerset House, London, who’s work moved me to tears. I went on an an art walk & talk with James Aldridge and took part in a drawing session with Lydia Halcrow in Bristol, part of A Gathering of Unasked Possibility, Centrespace Gallery, curated by Kelly O’Brien and Judith Rodgers, a memorable experience connecting with each other and our surroundings, particularly nature.

Following the touring exhibition Drawing on Dorset, my work now features in a lovely book on contemporary drawing. I have copies available to purchase if you’d like one: £15 (+pp). It’s a beautiful soft back publication with excellent quality images reflecting a wide range of drawing media and styles by some incredible South West artists. A great Christmas gift ;-)

I also have sets of mixed greetings cards for sale at an offer price of 3 x A5 @ £7; 6 x A6 @ £8 (+pp). Contact me in interested.

Report writing continues for B-Wing, but nearly there!

I’m working on a garden sculpture commission in time for Christmas; hoping to clear the decks by then for some celebration time!

Have a fabulous Christmas!

My hopes are that 2020 brings us to our senses - more green and harmonious ;-)

B-Wing Funding Success & New Developments

June brought a stream of thrilling news. After months of what seemed like never-ending funding applications and a long waiting game to hear our results, B-Wing received several grants in succession for our art in prison project. This will enable us to pay artists and engage the wider community in a series of special events including free workshops, talks and exhibition tours. We are so grateful to Arts Council England and The National Lottery for awarding B-Wing a project grant.  We have also received match-funding from Somerset Community Foundation, Shepton Town Council and Cranmore Parish Council - huge thanks to them and to all our supporters (see our website for a full list). It has been worth all the meetings and late nights at the computer. Now onto the next stages of curating and making.

I’m co-curating B-Wing with Luminara Star, alongside 6 other artists/writers. 8 of us will be installing a range of site-responsive visual art, poetry and text-based artworks in the unique spaces of B Wing, Shepton Mallet Prison for Somerset Art Weeks Festival 2019 (21 Sept - 6 Oct).

All the B-Wing artists met together at Shepton Mallet prison recently to celebrate.  Ideas are accumulating, and new collaborations brewing. I’ll be collaborating on work with Lou Baker and Scott Sandford on an immersive piece.

We now have our logo designed (by Chris Lee) and hard work continues, moving the project forward.

In the next couple of months, we are engaging the local community in free one-off workshops leading up to the main exhibition. I’m running 2 free workshops for adults on 23 July and 6 August, creating collaborative artworks (all abilities welcome), to be exhibited at our exhibition ( see poster). We aim to engage the local Shepton community as much as possible. We are also leading workshops at Whitstone schools and a Shepton home ed group this July, and offering free additional workshops for schools at the prison during Somerset Art Weeks as part of the prison’s educational package. For info on these and special events visit B-Wing Community Events and follow us on our social media channels: instagram, twitter and facebook (@bwing2019) #bwing2019 #artbehindbars .

To book a workshop email: bwingsheptonprison@gmail.com

For my B-Wing artwork, I have a few ideas on the go and am looking forward to getting cracking during my residency at the prison in August. I will be working on site using the Servery in B-Wing as my Studio. Some of my B-Wing work is going to be quite large, so making part of it on site will make logistics simpler .

I recently discovered Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Tavola VII (The Bridge), from The Imaginary Prisons series, 1745, thanks to a talk by Helene Bremer at Grow Flow symposium, Pound Arts, Wiltshire. The work reinforced ideas I’ve been developing for months around the theme of rickety ladders. Like the game snakes and ladders, humans seem imprisoned in an eternal cycle of striving, greed, pain, suffering and evil. Louise Bourgeois wrote a series of short stories - illustrated as 9 engravings. ‘He disappeared into complete silence’ features skeletal buildings, claustrophobic cells, dysfunctional spaces, human frailty, separation, isolation. Her floating ladders (plate 8) relate to the story of a man who ‘became cut off from part of the world’ through deafness. My large-scale installation for B-Wing will reflect on similar notions.

Re-Formation

Last week I installed my large sculptural installation Crowns of Thorns for a summer group show Re-Formation at Bishops Palace, Wells, organised by Heritage Courtyard Gallery. It’s made from various re-purposed older works (more than 7), using scrap steel, lead, a hand-woven net made from recycled materials (Canopy, 2016, originally created for RHS Chelsea Flower Show), and glass. The install was a long process, as is often the case with my work, thanks to my son Jack for all his help loading and unloading. I’m so grateful that the weather has allowed me to work outside, as the scale is too large for my increasingly cramped studio. Crown of Thorns investigates ideas about religion and myth, rethinking our belief systems. I’ve really enjoyed working with lead and glass again, playing with their capabilities, both respond so differently to heat and fusion. The materials speak of flux, transformation, contrast, collapse. The exhibition runs from 22nd July - 6 October. Private View 10 August, 6.30-9pm, all welcome!

Drawing on Dorset

My work Traces is included in a publication and exhibition Drawing on Dorset, currently at Fine Foundation Gallery, Durlston, Swanage - an idyllic setting. Part of Durlston Castle, it overlooks the sea, Studland and Isle of Wight. The Private View was held on a perfect summer evening this week, a packed event, which included a panel discussion about the practice of drawing, led by Anita Taylor. Tania Kovats read her beautiful introduction to the book, which begins ‘Make a mark, leave trace, something against nothing...’ I feel honoured to be a part of the exhibition and publication, alongside some great South West artists. The show runs til 17n July, then tours to the Lighthouse, Poole Centre for the Arts, 6-29 Sept.

Marks Hall Summer Exhibition

I delivered my Verticals and Giant Nest to Marks Hall Estate, Coggeshall, Essex last week - 9 hours round trip! Pleased to be showing work in such a beautiful landscape.

Sheds

Due to the nature of my work and my increasingly tight studio space, I’ve spent a few weekends sorting out and fixing 3 old dilapidated sheds in my garden, which will become storage and work spaces. I’m making good progress thanks to the help of Jason Nosworthy and Nick Weaver.

Workshops

I’ve run a range of workshops recently - the furthest was a sculpture workshop using recycled materials at Nottingham High School; a long way to go in a day but what a delightful set of outcomes from 40 Yr 9 students!

For further news of my forthcoming workshops and exhibitions please visit this link.

Happy summer days ahead!

Drawing on Dorset

I am delighted that my drawing Traces is included in this publication and exhibition.

It would be great to see you at the Private View . There will be a panel discussion about drawing by Anita Taylor as part of the event.